Charlie's Perry Miniatures medieval blog - UPDATE at last! 3rd Feb

[Charlie_]

Hello all,
Some of you may have seen a few of my threads over the past few weeks, about returning to the wargaming hobby after 10 years away. I'll be using this one thread to track all my progress from now on.
I was a Warhammer Fantasy Battles player many years ago, and gave it up for the same reasons most people do (time, costs, lack of enthusastic opponents, etc). I've always kept interested though, and have watched the changes happening in the Games Workshop side of the hobby. Recently I've come to the conclusion that what GW now offers has pretty much ZERO that appeals to me. I've always liked the gritty, realistic, believable side of fantasy, rather than the over-the-top comic book side of it. So goodbye GW!

And hello George R R Martin. Like many (most?) of us, I was hooked by the HBO series Game Of Thrones, and put off reading the books as I thought it would spoil the show for me. Well this year I could put it off no loner and dived into the books. Yes, the show is no longer so great. But my god, what good books! A Song Of Ice And Fire has everything that I like in fantasy, and it would make sense that if I ever returned to wargaming it would be via Westeros.

So why is this in the Medieval section, not the Fantasy section? Well when I say I like my fantasy realistic, I mean it! So though the medieval army I plan to raise will be set in GRRM's world, the only way that really will come across is through the flags and heraldry. In all other respects, this project will be a 15th century European one. Actually, it will be flexible. 90% of my miniatures are going to be in neutral, adaptable colours, with just characters and banners there to help assign them to factions (either real world or fantasy). But more on that at a later date.

And like many (most??) of you here, I am a big fan of Perry Miniatures. Their War Of The Roses range is perfect, as that's always been my favourite medieval era, and over 5 plastic box sets they have pretty much everything covered. Looks like a converter's dream!

So with this log I plan to share with you my progress from start to... well, however far this takes me, of a late medieval project, using mostly Perry's plastic kits (thanks to many other threads here for really inspiring me to go this route). To be used for both historical and Westeros purposes. And hopefully sometime in the future I'll be able to rope some of my friends in to play some games!

So with all that planned out, I made some purchases. I already had some Citadel paints and some old Citadel miniatures knocking about, so I got some stuff to complete my new hobby workstation (which can be hastily packed away when I need to eat - that's my dining table!).



As you can see, I also purchases a lightbox so I can hopefully get some good quality photos. I went for Vallejo Game Colour for the new paints, as I can't bring myself to use the ridiculous names GW now uses for all its products. As of now my paint collection is a mix of the two.

I've started painting up some of my old Citadel miniatures to give my brush skills some practice - see what I came up with at my other thread here (which will be updated sporadically with any random Citadel things I do on the side). Currently finished - some vintage wood elves and a Mordheim freelance knight.

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=81657.0

Against some good advice I got here, I ordered the Perry kits from Wayland Games. A week later, I give them a call - apparently my order won't be shipped til the end of the next week! Impatient, I went and ordered a couple of the kits elsewhere to get me started. I went for Renedra, as I also needed lots of bases from them, and it arrived the next day!



I went for the Bows & Bills and the Light Cavalry sets as I thought between the two of them it would give me lots of scope for converting and kit-bashing.

Next post - my first attempts!

[Charlie_]

Ok, so I weathered the glue fumes and got stuck in.

Wow, these things are delicate! You can bend those spears just by looking at them funny! Luckily I haven't broken anything yet.



Here are two archers and a billman. I love the huge variety of heads and the subtle differences in the body poses. It means every figure comes up with its own character and story, beyond what I plan for it. I really love the look and pose of the guy in the middle, but you can't really make it out that well with this pic. Obviously I'm gonna be making a lot of archers and billmen, this is just a selection.



A cavalryman. These are some fine horses! I've alreay made quite a lot of these spear-armed horsemen, this is just the first one I did. They look so natural and dynamic with spears lowered for the charge...



Some sort of mounted officer, perhaps a messenger, or perhaps he's just dropped his spear. These kits are gonna give me lots of scope for making characters and command figures.



My first kit-bash! The crossbow arms are from the cavalry box. I really like the pose and face combo on this guy, it looks like he's got his mind on something else as he takes a walk, or perhaps he's scanning the floor trying to find his quiver which he seems to have misplaced...



And another kitbash, to make a spearman. I quite like the result, and plan to make a group of these guys. Though to do so means using lots of the rare and precious spear-arms from the cavalry set. I'm thinking they will look good with large shields / pavises (which I'll have to wait for the mercenaries box to get hold of).



And this is an experiment with basing, to build up the base before priming. The billman has a mix of PVA and sand, the crossbowman has a mix of PVA and flour. We will let them dry and see how they both turn out.

So far I am very impressed with these kits, and am enjoying myself immensely. Things are only going to get more fun when my Wayland Games order finally arrives, giving me foot knights, mounted men at arms, European mercenaries and the Agincourt set!

I'm also really liking the thin Renedra bases. Having been used to GW slotta-bases, these make a very nice change.

One thing I found tricky was assembling the bill arms which come in two pieces. I much prefer the pose these ones give, but lining them up sometimes doesn't work and requires some shaving / repositioning. Any tips? Also annoyingly there are only two of these such arm pairs per frame.

Another thing is attaching all the sword-and-buckler pieces, which I'm aware that most billmen and archers require. Depending on how I've positioned the arms, these can be tricky to find a place for.

[tyrionhalfman]

You've made a good start in a popular genre.I'll watch your progress with interest. As you mentioned the variety you can get from the Perry wotr sets is vast but have you considered their hundred years war set with more to follow in 2016? Or the fireforge medieval sets? Or northstar's frostgrave soldiers? Or even dark age sets from gripping beast, wargames factory and conquest. The number of plastic medieval and dark age sets now on the market are vast. Others have mix and marched them all together to give more individual variety and to vary the look of their armies for GoT i.e. to help give the north a more rustic older look of equipment while Lannister and Tyrell get the more modern look. Thanks for sharing

[Charlie_]

You've made a good start in a popular genre.I'll watch your progress with interest. As you mentioned the variety you can get from the Perry wotr sets is vast but have you considered their hundred years war set with more to follow in 2016? Or the fireforge medieval sets? Or northstar's frostgrave soldiers? Or even dark age sets from gripping beast, wargames factory and conquest. The number of plastic medieval and dark age sets now on the market are vast. Others have mix and marched them all together to give more individual variety and to vary the look of their armies for GoT i.e. to help give the north a more rustic older look of equipment while Lannister and Tyrell get the more modern look. Thanks for sharing

I have indeed looked at incorporating the other ranges you've mentioned. I think I'm gonna get the gripping beast dark age wariors at some point, to get hold of some bare bearded heads, and use the bodies perhaps with Perry heads and weapons to make some sort of light infantry / skirmishers, perhaps mercenaries from the Free Cities? I probably won't go for the Frostgrave ones, too 'cartoony' for my liking. And I will definitely be getting one of the new Perry HYW sets when it is released, at the very least it will be used as a source of bits and weapons. I've got the English set on order, not sure yet how well it will mix in with the WOTR sets, we will see.

I'm actually not going to be going for the popular Stark and Lannister factions, and have no plans for The North any day soon. But we'll discuss what Houses I will be doing when it comes to painting!

[Captain Blood]

Great start, well done Charlie_

Yes, despite the generally briiliant design and engineering of the components, those polearms where you have to attach a wrist to a hand which is moulded onto a haft, are never quite spot on. They always seem to misalign very slightly, so you do need to douse liberally with poly cement to conceal the shonky join.

One more suggestion: it's pretty easy to slice any arm at the elbow or wrist and do a partial limb swap. So, if, for instance, you didn't want to use the light cavalry brigandine arms carrying a spear, to be in that posture, you can always just slice the hand off at the gauntlet and reposition it slightly, or replace with an entirely different gauntleted hand with a different weapon from any of the sets. Depends how adventurous you want to be with your conversions, but hand swaps are dead easy, and give you a vast new range of options, above and beyond what you can already achieve simply by intermixing components  

Good luck!

[coopman827]

Good luck with your new project, Charlie.  This is a great period to do. 

[Atheling]

I've got to add, that as well as having come very nice conversions/builds there it's great to see someone throw themselves into a project with such enthusiasm and zest  .

Keep up the great work!

Darrell.

[Charlie_]

Thanks for the interest, folks. I should have the first couple of test paintjobs to show in a day or two!

Captain - yes I will be doing lots of hand-swaps for sure. I haven't needed to yet, but as soon as some of the other kits arrive the conversion potential will increase hugely, and hand-swaps will abound!

I have a question for you actually, regarding poly cement. I've seen you mention a few times how you brush it on to help dissolve mould-lines. How easy it it to clean from brushes? Does it just need a good rinse in water, or does it require a special cleaning fluid? Will it ruin my brushes, or would I be fine using my usual ones as long as I clean them well?
You have mentioned brushing it between fingers to help remove those extra-awkward mould-lines. That sounds seriously fiddly!

[Atheling]

I have a question for you actually, regarding poly cement. I've seen you mention a few times how you brush it on to help dissolve mould-lines. How easy it it to clean from brushes? Does it just need a good rinse in water, or does it require a special cleaning fluid? Will it ruin my brushes, or would I be fine using my usual ones as long as I clean them well?
You have mentioned brushing it between fingers to help remove those extra-awkward mould-lines. That sounds seriously fiddly!

Now that is a good question- do you mean with a brush that's supplied with the cement Richard?

Darrell.

[Charlie_]

Now that is a good question- do you mean with a brush that's supplied with the cement Richard?

It's much too big, isn't it?

I've got both version of the poly cement, the brush pot and the needle applicator.

[Atheling]

It's much too big, isn't it?

To be honest, I don't know.... maybe there's a product out there with a thinner brush?

Darrell.

[Captain Blood]

I just squeeze a little from the needle applicator onto a palette, and then use an old 0 brush to slap it on. Leave it for a few seconds to start to soften the surface of the plastic, then use the brush to brush away the mould line. Add a bit more cement as you go if you need to. I clean my brush afterwards in Humbrol enamel thinners and it comes up good as new, although to be fair, I have a stack of old brushes I keep for rough non-painting jobs like this. Pretty sure white spirit, meths, or any other type of spirit based cleaner would get rid of the residual poly cement in the brush just as well, although I certainly wouldn't use my best new 10-0 paintbrush for slopping on glue 

[tomrommel1]

very good start indeed !! Will follow your progress closely.

[Jiron]

It's a great fresh start! I often ask myself a question "what would I do if I'd be starting the hobby NOW?" and something like this is my answer.

Now to your plan, I have a question and I am quite curious about the answer. What noble house(es) army are you going to build? I am just curious about your prefferences. I am as well in the process of building new historical army and tempted by using them for Westeros as well (in my case it's Anglo-Saxon army from 11th Century... would be great Greyjoy army).

Medieval projects are great just because Dan Merseys awesome Lion Rampant ruleset.

[Charlie_]

Now to your plan, I have a question and I am quite curious about the answer. What noble house(es) army are you going to build? I am just curious about your prefferences. I am as well in the process of building new historical army and tempted by using them for Westeros as well (in my case it's Anglo-Saxon army from 11th Century... would be great Greyjoy army).

Well, as you've asked...

I'm going to base this project around the Riverlands. It's a region that has loads of potential for conflicts and different match-ups. Seems whenever there is a war in Westeros, the Riverlands suffer the most as they are right in the middle and have no natural defences such as mountains. So this is going to be House Tully and their vassals.
This is particularly useful, as there are times when the Tullys had to fight their own vassals. During Robert's Rebellion, not all of the Riverlords followed Hoster Tully in supporting the Arryns, Starks and Baratheons, and remained loyal to the crown. So before he could join the war, Tully had to defeat some of his own people in battle.
This means there are several houses I can feature who can be used either as part of the main army or as opponents.
So there will be lots of Tully flags and commanders, along with Mallister, Bracken, Blackwood, Mooton, Vance and others, plus a few generic flags of my own devising.
Below from left to right.... Mallister, Bracken, and two of my own.